Russian forces have launched a barrage of long-range precision weapons at Ukrainian targets, the Defense Ministry confirmed in its daily briefing on Wednesday.
Ukrainian officials earlier reported that Russia had inflicted damage to the country’s energy infrastructure overnight.
The Russian side said some of its targets were military factories rather than parts of the Ukrainian power sector. The strike involved drones and several types of missiles, including air-launched hypersonic Kinzhal weapons, the statement said, adding that the projectiles successfully hit all the intended sites.
The air assault was described by the Russian military as retaliation for “attempts by the Kiev regime to cause damage to Russian energy facilities.” The attacks “significantly reduced Ukraine’s ability to manufacture military products and transport Western arms and military vehicles to the frontline,” the ministry said.
Ukraine escalated attacks deep inside Russia with long-range kamikaze drones in January. Senior military officials in Kiev claimed that they have “no choice” but to try and destroy oil refineries and other industrial sites, since Ukrainian forces on the frontline are being pushed back. That apparently prompted Moscow to add Ukrainian power plants to its list of targets.
The latest Russian strikes, according to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, involved over 50 missiles and 20 drones aimed at infrastructure targets. The Ukrainian military claimed it intercepted most of the weapons, but DTEK, a major private energy company, stated that several of its thermal power plants were damaged.
Russian missiles and drones struck nearly a dozen Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities on Wednesday, causing serious damage at three Soviet-era thermal power plants and blackouts in multiple regions, officials said.
Ukraine's air force said it shot down 39 of 55 missiles and 20 of 21 attack drones used for the attack, which piles more pressure on the energy system more than two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
"Another massive attack on our energy industry!" Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on the Telegram app. Two people were injured in the Kyiv region and one was hurt in the Kirovohrad region, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
Galushchenko said power generation and transmission facilities in the Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Vinnytsia regions were targeted.
Some 350 rescuers were racing to minimise the damage to energy facilities, 30 homes, public transport vehicles, cars, and a fire station, the interior ministry said.
Ukraine's national power grid operator Ukrenergo said it was forced to introduce electricity cut-offs in nine regions across, adding it might have to expand them nationwide during peak hours.
Officials urged Ukrainians to limit consumption.
Russia's defence ministry said it struck Ukraine's military-industrial complex and energy facilities with drones and high-precision missiles in what it described as retaliation for Kyiv's strikes on Russian energy facilities.
"As a result of the strike, Ukraine's capabilities for the output of military products, as well as the transfer of Western weapons and military equipment to the line of contact, have been significantly reduced," the ministry said.
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